Our good friend and pivotal group member, Julia Daugherty, passed away last year after struggles with health issues. Please visit her memorial page to view remembrances.

People for Justice in Palestine is no longer actively meeting.We welcome you to read the information posted on our website.
We have truly appreciated the interest shownin our programs and activities these many years.
Thank you.

ACTION ALERT: SODA-STREAM BOYCOTT

Supporters of the South African struggle against white apartheid played their part by campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions. We can play that role again.

WE THE UNDERSIGNED, as customers of one or more of the above-listed stores, ask you to stop carrying SodaStream products. SodaStream produces home beverage carbonation machines that are manufactured in the Mishor Edomim industrial park, near the illegal colony of Ma'ale Adumim in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

We object to trade with illegal Israeli settlements because the forcible confiscation and settlement of occupied territories as in Ma'ale Adumim is prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 49. Moreover, the rapid expansion of Ma'ale Adumim in particular threatens to slice up the West Bank and make a viable Palestinian state impossible, defeating the chance of justice and peace in the two-state territorial compromise endorsed by the U.S.

Company defenders say that it employs Palestinians and brings many economic benefits to the area, but taxes from the plant go to the illegal settlement. Palestinians live under a brutal and repressive military occupation in conditions of high unemployment and are forced to find work wherever they can. Palestinian workers at SodaStream get just half the minimum wage and are subject to a “permit” system, which means immediate dismissal if they complain about the harsh working conditions at the SodaStream plant. SodaStream workers do not receive the rights to which they are entitled under Israeli labor law.

For these reasons, there is a large and growing movement to boycott SosdaStream. This movement has been endorsed by a coalition of faith-based and peace and justice organizations, such as the United Methodist Kairos Response and Holy Land Task Force, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Jewish Voice for Peace, the American Friends Service Committee, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and Unitarian-Universalists for Justice in the Middle East.

In recognition of the desire of retailers to meet customer demand for products like those produced by SodaStream, we ask you to consider a wide range of alternatives that are currently on the market in the U.S. Some of these are listed on the following website: www.globalexchange.org/economicactivism/sodastream/alternatives. For more information on the SodaStream Boycott, see the website of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

NOTE: This is not an official action by PJP, but an invitation to our friends to act on their own consciences.

Samsung refrigerators, and Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, and Country Time drink mixes are now being advertised as partners with SodaStream. It may be effective for consumers to ask these companies to consider partnering with companies whose human rights practices are more in accord with our values.

Do something now. Nothing too taxing.

In 2011, the average U.S. taxpayer gave Israel $21.59 for weapons. That adds up to three billion dollars a year to kill the hope of peace for Israel and Palestine.

With April 15--tax time--coming up, you might like to offset that amount by making a tax-deductible donation to UNRWA (UN relief for Palestine refugees) With a $20 donation to UNRWA--less than what you're paying for Israeli weapons--you will protect a Palestinian refugee child from disease. With any donation to any group or organization working for peace and justice, you'll be un-doing some of the harm that our government does with your tax money. Please consider it.